20th Century American Abstract Expressionists

It was the first specifically american movement to achieve international influence and put new york city at the center of the western art world a role formerly filled by paris. In practice the term is applied to any number of artists who worked mostly in new york during the 1940s. Whats in a name.

The most prominent american abstract expressionist painters were jackson pollock willem de kooning franz kline and mark rothko.

20th century american abstract expressionists. Jackson pollock stenographic figure 1942 c jackson pollock. Abstract expressionism is a post world war ii art movement in american painting developed in new york in the 1940s. Abstract expressionism broad movement in american painting that began in the late 1940s and became a dominant trend in western painting during the 1950s. The group of artists known as abstract expressionists emerged in the united states in the years following world war ii.

As the term suggests their work was characterized by non objective imagery that appeared emotionally charged with personal meaning. It was somehow meant to encompass not only the work of painters who filled their canvases with fields of color and abstract forms but also those who attacked their canvases with a vigorous gestural expressionism. Abstract expressionism has many stylistic similarities to the russian artists of the early 20th century such as wassily kandinsky. The artists however rejected these implications of the name.

Hailed as one of the first major modern movements in american art abstract expressionism was largely defined by the prolific work turbulent life and critical writings about jackson pollock 1912 1956. Hes the face of this movement and the best portrait of the ardent passion that art can be cause of in a volatile spirit. Abstract expressionism is a term applied to a movement in american painting that flourished in new york city after world war ii sometimes referred to as the new york school or more narrowly as action painting. Abstract expressionism was never an ideal label for the movement which developed in new york in the 1940s and 1950s.

At the wars end a new style emerged that employed automatism non objective abstraction and massive scaleabstract expressionism. Jackson pollocks paintings represent a great moment in abstract expressionism.